Who has the oldest nameplate?

Who has the oldest nameplate? How many miles has your nameplate traveled? To what countries and climes?

Do you remember the day and the ceremony when you graduated from the Civil Engineering or the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and you received your official nameplate? What a great day that was and what a fitting recognition for the time, effort, and sacrifice that it took to get there. If you are like most of our alumni, you’ve kept that nameplate and put it on your desk as you’ve moved from desk to desk in your career. As a contrast, I recall another University where I worked before coming to BYU: at graduation they awarded each graduate with a shot glass! I’m pleased that at my suggestion they changed their tradition to match ours.

How long has the tradition of awarding nameplates been in place in our Department? How many nameplates have been awarded? Well, it seems like we’ve been awarding nameplates for 48 years, beginning in 1956 or 1957 when the Civil Engineering Department was recognized as a separate unit on the BYU campus. As far as numbers go…it looks like almost 3,000 nameplates have been awarded since then. What a wonderful legacy!

What a shock it was when we were informed last year that lo, for these many years, we have been violating official BYU policy by purchasing these nameplates with funds that either came from the Church or were donated to the Department! It turns out that it is against BYU policy to recognize individuals with these funds. We appealed this issue as far as we could and alas, we were told that we could no longer provide these nameplates to our graduating seniors in the way we had been doing for so long.

We just can’t give up! We have begun to work with our very supportive Central Utah Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers to continue the tradition. They have established a fund, that when donated to, sets aside money for nameplates. Each donation is duly noted as being tax deductible, and they ‘pay the check’ to the engraving company for the nameplates each semester. Please see below to find out how you can make a contribution to the nameplate fund to help us keep this wonderful tradition alive.

How to Donate

The ASCE Central Utah Branch (CUB) has graciously agreed to assist us with the administration of the nameplate fund to continue the longstanding legacy of providing nameplates to all of our graduates. To donate to the nameplate fund, please send a check (payable to “ASCE CUB”) to the Civil Engineering Department at the following address: